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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 28, 1873. 
We take from the Eastern Morning Neivs a few notes of a 
visit made to the establishment. 
On entering the building the visitor is struck by the 
absence of the sickening smell present in many manure 
works. There are plenty of endless bands in the air, 
working a vast number of wheels whose arrangement at 
first seems rather intricate, while on the floor are scattered 
about large heaps of astone-lilcesubstance, something harder 
than granite and heavier than lead, andother mounds of what 
might be taken for small pebbles. The large heavy stones 
are known in commerce as pyrites, while the pebbles go 
by the name of coprolite, and from these two seemingly 
unprofitable objects a most rich and valuable manure— 
superphosphate of lime—is manufactured. From the 
pyrites one of the constituents of the manure—sulphuric 
acid—is derived. The company at present import the 
pyrites used from abroad. As this substance reaches the 
works in lumps, sometimes as large as a couple of paving 
stones, it has to be first subjected to a bruising process. 
This is effected by a Blake’s patent crusher, which breaks 
the lumps into pieces about the size of ordinary road 
metal, doing in four or five seconds as much bruising work 
as a man could do with his hammer in half-an-hour. The 
pyrites thus rendered more manageable falls from the 
crusher into a well, whence it is raised by an elevator, 
similar in principle to a dock dredger. In this state it is 
used for charging the kilns—twenty-four in number—and 
the fumes of sulphurous acid resulting from the burn¬ 
ing are conveyed into large chambers, where they are 
converted into sulphuric acid. 
The coprolite, which has much the appearance of dusty 
little stones, is essentially of the same chemical composi¬ 
tion as bone. Scientific men speak of it as the vestiges, 
which are ordinarily of an evanescent character, of some 
sort of amphibious animals belonging to a pre-adamite 
period. These curious remains were left on the sand at 
that remote age, and have come down to our own day, 
though the race of animals is itself extinct. The company 
derives its supply of coprolite from Cambridgeshire, and 
the yield, when ground, is about 58 per cent, of phos¬ 
phate of lime. The coprolite is first passed between two 
rollers, by which operation it is reduced to the dimensions 
of very small pebbles. These are hoisted by an elevator, 
and thrown into ordinary hoppers, which supply different 
pairs of millstones. The coprolite leaves the millstones in a 
state of fine powder that soon finds its way into the throat, 
and is passed into a creep or kind of long narrow box 
with a spiral movement inside, by which it is forwarded to 
another elevator, and lifted up to the room where the final 
operation—that of mixing with the sulphuric acid—is 
performed. The quantities have to be measured to a 
nicety. The ground coprolite is what is known as tribasic 
phosphate of lime, being made up of ordinary lime and 
phosphoric acid, in the proportion of three to one. When 
the sulphuric acid is brought to act upon this phosphate, 
monobasic phosphate of lime and sulphate of lime are pro¬ 
duced. These, together, form the chief chemical manure 
in the manufacture of which the Lincolnshire Farmers’ 
Company are at present engaged. This product leaves 
the mixing machine in a liquid state, flowing into large 
dens underneath, capable of storing immense quantities. 
The manure is dry and ready for transport in a few hours 
after manufacture. The hydrofluoric acid accumulating 
in these storing dens is a most deleterious and obnoxious 
neighbour. It is drawn off into a chimney, where it is 
thrown down by water, and thence runs off in the common 
sewers. Any annoyance to neighbours or injury to vege¬ 
tation is thus easily obviated. Should the manure set and 
become too hard with keeping, a disintegrator, consisting 
of two wheels revolving in opposite directions at the rate 
of 500 revolutions a minute, soon pulverizes and renders it 
quite ready for the farmers’ use. The usual appliances 
for grinding half-inch bones, and manufacturing dissolved 
bones, etc., are also complete. The entire machinery is 
driven by a beam engine working up to 140-horse power, 
with a couple of boilers. 
THE SHOP HOURS’ REGULATION BILL. 
MEETING AT NORWICH. 
A meeting of the tradesmen of Norwich was held on 
Friday, June 13th, at the Guildhall, to consider Sir John 
Lubbock’s Shop Hours’ Regulation Bill, and, if thought 
desirable, to adopt a petition to Parliament against any 
objectionable clauses in that measure. The Mayor, who 
presided, in his opening remarks said that the spirit of 
the legislation of the present day was getting rather too 
sentimental, and was neglecting the feelings and require¬ 
ments of the trading interests. The trading classes were 
competent, by bye-laws and mutual arrangements, to 
make things agreeable to themselves and their employes. 
By interposing to prevent the further progress of this 
Bill great public service would be done, and he was of 
opinion that it would be for the interest of all to continue 
in the old jog-trot road rather than adopt any violent 
changes. 
It was moved by Mr. A. R. Chamberlain, seconded by 
Mr. Copeman, and resolved unanimously—“ That this 
meeting, while fully sympathizing with the public feeling 
in favour of shortening the hours of labour in retail shops, 
is decidedly of opinion that Sir John Lubbock’s Shop 
Hours’ Regulation Bill will not secure that object, and 
should it become law will improperly interfere with the 
conduct of retail businesses, and press most unjustly upon 
those tradesmen whose trade compels them to employ 
persons coming under the provisions of the Act.” 
It was moved by Mr. Caley, seconded by Mr. Snowdon, 
and resolved—“ That legislation suited to the factory or 
workshop, where work commences at the specified hour, 
and is continuous up to the hour for meals, and again to 
the end of the day, is altogether inapplicable to shops, 
where assistants are often for hours unemployed, or only 
partially employed, as the character or state of trade may 
permit.” 
It was moved by Mr. Wild, seconded by Mr. Edwards, 
and resolved—“ That it is the opinion of this meeting 
that, should the Bill become law, it will very seriously 
injure many persons employed in shops coming under the 
provisions of the Act, as it will not only curtail to a very 
large extent the employment of female labour, as well as 
that of young men under twenty-one years of age, but it 
will also discourage the training of apprentices in the 
various trades to which this Bill applies.” 
In the course of the discussion, Mr. J. D. Smith pointed 
out that it was impossible for the public service that 
chemists’ shops should be closed for one half-day in the 
week. 
A petition embodying the foregoing resolutions was 
adopted, and ordered to be forwarded to Mr. J. J. 
Colman, with a request that he would support it in his 
place in Parliament. 
FIRE AT NEWCASTLE. 
On Friday afternoon, June 13, an alarming fire broke 
out on the premises of Mr. H. B. Brady, pharmaceutical 
chemist, Mosley Street, Newcastle. While one of the 
assistants was engaged on the second floor with an appa¬ 
ratus containing an inflammable chemical, the substance 
suddenly ignited, and set fire to surrounding combustibles 
—lint, pill boxes, oilskin, etc. In an incredibly short 
space of time, dense black smoke issued from the front 
windows, and a woman who was in the topmost room of 
the building engaged in cleaning, afraid to make her way 
down by the staircase, appeared at the small window, a 
height of about sixty feet, and in the presence of an ex¬ 
cited crowd of people, crept along a narrow parapet about 
two yards in length to the slanting roof of the adjoining 
premises. Here she was laid hold of by a pair of strong 
arms and carefully put through an attic window, amid 
the cheers of the mob. The engine from the Manors 
Police Station was immediately upon the spot, but the 
flames were extinguished without its aid. The damage 
caused was fortunately not very great. 
